Connecting to Dalton
by Bablefisk
Summary: When Kurt transfer back to McKinley, it's not for the reasons many thinks. As the Warblers sing their goodbye, Kurt thinks back at his time with them, and the friends he have made and which he will miss horribly. *KWKW* WARNING: Trigger alert and mentions of self harm. Mentiones of Klaine and Niff
1. Chapter 1

**AN**: It has annoyed me for a while that we don't really see Kurt making any other friends at Dalton, so here is some of the stories I think we didn't get to see;) This was supposed to be a one shot, but it got away from me, so it might be a chapter or 2 more.

**Beta: **Thanks to **The Other** for beta, and all mistakes are my own

**Disclaimed: **Not mine, otherwise Kurt would be doing the horizontal with... well, anyone but Blaine.

** KURT WARBLER**

"_And I'll see you after school and on the weekends, but these guys won't"_

Although Kurt thought it was extremely sweet of the Warblers to skip school to come and sing for him, he knew very well that he would see several of the Warblers on a regular basis. He might have only been at Dalton for some months, but he had made several friends both inside and outside the Warblers. As they started to sing, Kurt thought back to how he connected to several of them during his time at Dalton.

**Jeff**

Jeff was the first person Kurt had met, as he was Kurt's roommate. He had been very nervous about the roommate because he really wanted to get along with the other boy, and it would be a lot easier if he was friends with whoever it was. The second he met Jeff, he breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure why, but there was just something about him that made Kurt instantly like him. The blond boy was full of energy, smiled all the time and seemed to like Kurt well enough. An hour after Kurt had stepped into the room, and they were talking like the best of friends. It turned out Jeff was a dancer, and they could talk about dancing and music and movies for hours.

A few days later, Kurt was walking down the hall with Blaine, when the shorter boy brought up his excitable roommate. "How is it going with Jeff? Are you guys getting along?" For some reason that Kurt really didn't understand, Blaine sounded tense and the smile on his face was stiff.

"Oh, it's going great actually, we get on famously!" Kurt smiled at Blaine, wondering why in the word he looked so uncomfortable.

Later, he tried to ask Blaine about it, but he just shrugged it off. When he asked Jeff about Blaine, his roommate simply told him that he and Blaine didn't get along so well.

When he started dating Blaine, Kurt made sure to book in roommate time with Jeff every week. Every Monday evening, after the Warbler meeting was done, they would lock themselves in their room, turn of their cell-phones and hang out. Sometimes they talked - often about their weekends. Sometimes they watched movies, and sometimes Jeff would teach Kurt a few new dance moves. The first roommate time they set aside, Blaine came knocking. Jeff rolled his eyes as Kurt went to open the door, but Kurt could see the disappointment in his friends' eyes; he thought Kurt would pick Blaine over him.

When Kurt opened the door, he spoke up before Blaine could say anything. "Sorry, Blaine- roommate night." He then proceeded to peck his boyfriend on the lips, closing and locking the door and sitting down on the bed again, on the receiving end of a blinding smile from Jeff.

When Kurt wanted to transfer back, Jeff was the first person he told. The other boy had cried, but didn't once ask him not to go because he knew Kurt, and knew when he had made up his mind, it was made up. Kurt pulled him into a hug, and they stood like that for fifteen minutes - both crying, mumbling to each other about skyping at least once a week and talking on the phone everyday, either by text or call. Kurt also promised to drive out to Dalton once a month, and Jeff decided it was about time he became a regular at the Hudmel home, where he so far had been three times. Nick walked in on them then and became the third person to know about the transfer, after Burt and Jeff. Kurt would miss Jeff more than anyone at Dalton - even Blaine - because even though Blaine was his boyfriend, Jeff had been there every time Blaine hadn't. Even the few times the disagreed about things, Jeff was always there, and Kurt would always be there for him. Kurt couldn't ask for a better friend than that. And that's why he would miss Jeff more than anyone.

**Wes**

When Kurt started Dalton, Wes had been stiff and more than a little harsh, in Kurt own opinion. He often wondered if he had done something to offend the older boy, but he couldn't really see what. After a few weeks of watching and joining the Warblers, Kurt realized that Wes really just was that stiff in Warbler meetings, and although Kurt never had experienced it personally, he had seen that the other boy were much more relaxed outside the meetings.

W E S & K U R T

Wes groaned as he sat down next by David in the one of the common rooms. He had just come from AP French, and had gotten a test back with a C +. His French teacher had, without much ado, told him point blank that if he wanted to keep up his GPA, he needed to get an A on the next test. It was a big one, it counted for 40% of the score this semester, and Wes needed that GPA to get where he wanted in life. But French was not his best subject by far, and none of his friends took AP French. And so he put his forehead on the table, groaning again.

A hand started massaging his neck, and David spoke up next to him. "What's wrong?"

"Ugh! French is what's wrong!" Wes kept his head on the table, but relaxed a little more as his David kept up with his ministrations.

"Well yes, I know that and you know that, but what is more wrong with it now than usual?"

Wes sat up, dislodging David's hand, digging out the test he had gotten back and laying it on the table. "If I don't get an A on the next test in three weeks, it will pull down my GPA."

"Ouch." They both knew well enough what that meant. Sure, they were from wealthy families and money would never be a problem, but that also meant there were certain standards to uphold, and for the two of them it was a perfect GPA.

Wes sighed again. "I don't know what to do. I need help, but who am I gonna ask? You know as well as me that asking someone outside the Warblers is a very bad idea." It really was, last time someone had asked for help outside their own club at school... well, let's just say there was little loyalty outside the clubs. "How can none of the Warblers take AP French? How is that even possible?"

A voice suddenly interrupted Wes' ranting. "Kurt takes AP French. "

Wes looked over at the blond haired boy currently sitting some seats down and across from them. Jeff was smiling, but he still had his head bowed over his own homework.

"What? No he doesn't, I haven't seen him in the class."

Jeff looked up at the disgruntled boy. "Well, you're with Mr. Merchant, right?" Wes nodded, and Jeff continued. "Well, Kurt has Miss Carrifleur."

The other two boys looked at him in shock. There were two AP French teachers in school, but only a few people took Miss Carrifleur's class. If you were in her class, it meant that you were fluent in French. No one knew what the class did except the few chosen that was good enough for it.

And that was why Wes found himself outside Kurt and Jeff's room later that evening, knocking on the door. He really needed help with this, and Kurt was kind enough that he didn't think he would mind helping Wes out.

The door opened, and Kurt stood there, out of his uniform for the evening, in dark skinnies and a gray sweater.

"Wes!" Kurt seemed a little bewildered as to why the council head would be at his room at 7 in the evening. "How can I help you?"

"I was hoping to ask you something, can I come in?"

"Oh, of course, come on in." Kurt stepped back and let the older boy in, closing the door after him before sitting down on the neatly made bed, gesturing for Wes to sit down as well.

"So, what's up?"

Wes drew in a long breath before answering; he didn't like asking for help. "Well, I heard from Jeff that you take Miss Carrifleur's French class?" Kurt simply nodded, and Wes continued. "The thing is, I need some help with French. I was just told by Mr. Merchant that if I don't pull an A on the next test, my GPA will suffer." As he talked, he fished out the already nightmare inducing test he had gotten back earlier that day, and held it up to Kurt, showing the depressing C +.

Kurt smiled at him and his eyes lighted up. "Of course I'll help you out! I love French, I used to help out some of my friends at McKinley. When is the test, and when do you want to meet?"

W E S & K U R T

A few weeks later, Wes was walking down the hallway to the common rooms. His French was doing much better, and Kurt was a great teacher. He had taken the test yesterday, and he had a good feeling about it. He was just walking past another hallway when he heard a familiar voice. As he followed the voice, he could see Kurt sitting in one of the window seats with a note book resting on his knees, talking on the phone in... Mandarin. It was stumbling Mandarin - as though he was trying to say the words right, but not knowing just the right way to do it. Wes knew this of course, because he himself had Mandarin as a second language - as his mother was originally from China. Right now he was only saying different words, not making a whole lot of sense, but seemingly trying to pronounce it right.

Suddenly he switched over to English again. "Okay, thanks Mike. Say hi to the others from me, will you, and give Tina a kiss from me. Miss you guys too. Bye!" Kurt turned to slide out of the seat when he noticed Wes standing there.

"Oh, Wes, hi."

Wes' curiosity got the better of him. "Why were you speaking Mandarin? On the phone?"

"Oh, ehh, because I'm trying to teach myself, and before I came here, Mike, one of the guys in New Direction helped me with it. It's a bit far to drive two hours every week to go there now, but he helps me with the pronunciation over phone, and then when I'm home he helps me with the writing."

"Ah, that makes sense I guess, but... I am fluent in Mandarin, so if you like I could teach you."

Kurt grins at him, walking with Wes toward the study hall as he answers. "Seriously? That would be great, actually! It's been so much more difficult to learn like this, it would help a lot."

"Hey, you help me out with French, I help you out with Mandarin - it's a good deal."

They met up once a week and took one hour with each language, and slowly but surely the two hours became full evenings as they got to know each other. Wes found out that Kurt is far from the Diva he pretends to be, and Kurt got to experience the relaxed Wes. Before they knew it, they were friends, and they start to meet up every Wednesday evening at Dalton. When Kurt decided to go back to McKinley, Wes was not happy, but they made a deal; every Wednesday evening, they are going to Skype. One hour talking in Mandarin, one hour talking in French, and if they have anything more to talk about (which they often do), they talk the rest of the evening in English. Kurt would have never expected it when he came to Dalton, but Wes has become one of his best friends, and Kurt would miss him a lot.

**Nick**

Nick was the second person Kurt met at Dalton, simply because he was Jeff's best friend (and secret boyfriend - the worst kept secret at Dalton) and he had come in to their room just a couple of hours after Kurt had arrived. Just as he had with Jeff, Kurt found he liked Nick on an instinctual level, which in itself was strange. Kurt had a lot in common with Jeff, but with Nick there didn't seem to be anything they both had an interest in. Nick was a jock - a nice jock, much like Mike - but still a jock. Sure, they liked some of the same movies, as they both enjoyed a good action movie, and neither could say no to Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. They didn't really read the same books, with just one strange exception; they both loved Battle Royal and could gush about it like nobody's business. But despite of all this, Nick and Kurt got along fabulously.

Their friendship cemented itself in a way one evening when Jeff was away at dance class, and Nick knew that Kurt had had a tough week, so he had decided to keep the countertenor company. That weekend, some of the Warblers had gone to Columbus to do some shopping, and they had almost walked into some of the jocks from Kurt's old school. Nick and Jeff, who had both been there knew well enough what had happened to make Kurt transfer, and luckily Tristan was with them. Tristan was on the Dalton wrestling team, was 6' tall and built like Vinni Jones in 'Gone in 60 seconds'. Nick had quickly made sure that Kurt was behind himself and Tristan. The whole thing had blown over fast, but because of that Kurt had to tell the other Warblers with them - Tristan, Ben, Trent and Alex - what had been going on, and Nick knew he didn't like talking about it. On Monday someone from New Directions had called him, and had gotten angry about him never spending enough time with them, or his 'real friends' as they called themselves. And lastly Blaine had been in a mood and taken it out on Kurt, yelling something about a blond cheerleader and hypocrisy. So that Thursday Nick decided to spend some time with Kurt.

Nick didn't really know why, but he had connected to Kurt on a level he only before had connected to Jeff. He had given up trying to figure out why, all he needed to know was that he enjoyed hanging out with Kurt.

As he let himself into the dorm (because really, he had walked right in there so many times it might as well had been his own room) and closed the door behind him, he lay eyes on Kurt and froze. Kurt was sitting on the floor on what Nick later would realize was a towel, his eyes looking up at Nick with shock, fear and sadness all mixed in one, a razor blade in one hand and red drops of blood on his naked thighs. Nick could clearly see the scars on his legs, most of them healed and more than a few weeks old, but a few just a week or so old and three fresh and bleeding. Kurt's cheeks were tear stained and his hand still holding on to the blade in his hand.

As he took in the picture of a broken Kurt, Nick suddenly realized why he had connected so easily with him, he was another broken soul. Nick could feel the scars on his upper arms and midsection start to itch, and he felt tears gathering in his eyes as he held Kurt's gaze and slowly raised up his long-sleeved cotton shirt. He saw it in Kurt's eyes the second he recognized the scars for what they was, and Nick knelt down on the floor, gathering the slighter boy in his arms and holding him tight whilst he sobbed, as Nick himself silently cried. They didn't need to talk really, there was just a clear understanding of camaraderie and a silent _please come and talk to me the next time_. Nick hadn't cut in months, but he knew that something could happen anytime that made him find that razor again. Jeff knew - he had seen the scars of course - and whilst Nick, he could always go to Jeff if something happened, it was something different entirely to have a friend that knew what it felt like that he could talk with.

Nick helped Kurt get cleaned up and dressed in his pj's, and they sat on the floor the rest of the evening - Kurt leaning his head on Nick's shoulder and Nick with his arm around Kurt's waist. They talked, about the cutting, what made them cut, what started it all, but also about their family and friends and anything else in their life. When Jeff came back, Kurt had fallen asleep and Nick sat there quietly. Jeff looked at him questioningly, noticing the tear stains on his face and kneeling in front of his boyfriend, letting his hands run over the dried tears and demanding an explanation with just his eyes. The tears welled up in Nick's eyes again, and Jeff was clearly worried. As he shifted on the floor, the bloodstained towel moved, and Jeff suddenly noticed the blood. He turned his clear blue and alarmed eyes on his boyfriend again, taking his face in his hands and looking at Nick as if asking _no, you didn't, please tell me you didn't. _Nick just shook his head and tilted it down at Kurt, clutching the smaller body even closer. Jeff looked at his new friend with tears in his eyes, and just looked so extremely sad.

Nick carefully lifted Kurt up, trying not to wake him, and lay him down on the bed, tucking him in when the small boy slept on. He could see Jeff take the towel and throw it away, stuffing it to the bottom of their trashcan. Nick turned to his boyfriend again and hugged him close, both of them crying, for Kurt and his lot in life, wishing with all their mights that they could help him.

The moment Kurt remembered what had happened the evening before, he got nervous. Not for Nick so much, who had bravely shown his own scars and talked to Kurt for hours, but for Jeff, who most probably knew by now. But when he got up from bed a little shakily, Jeff simply walked over, pulled him into a long hug and kissed him in the cheek, smiling a little sadly.

Weeks went by, and every time Kurt felt like cutting, he found Nick who held him and helped him calm down. Nick came to Kurt to, about other problems, but he came only one time about that, and that was the one night Kurt didn't sleep in his own bed, but instead held Nick all night.

When Kurt told Jeff he was going back to McKinley, Nick walked in on him and Jeff hugging and crying, and he got a little panicky. But when all was explained, Kurt was pulled into another long hug.

"Call me anytime, I mean it. It might take me some time to get there, but if nothing else, we can talk on the phone."

Kurt would miss Nick, his friend and comrade, horribly.

**Thad**

At first when Kurt had met Thad, he had seemed just as stiff and standoffish as Wes, but Kurt soon realized a little quirk the dark haired Warbler had; he would drag a book with him anywhere. They were always fiction of some kind, and ranged from _Harry Potter _to _Fanny Hill_ to _Stephen King. _Kurt had never really known anyone else that enjoyed fiction as much as himself, and it was heartening to see. Blaine liked to read, but he mostly stuck to fantasy, and that wasn't really Kurt's thing, but he loved the classics and he would devour any crime he could find. And so, one day in the commons, when Kurt was finished with all his homework, he fished out his current book from his bag. He was currently reading _The Girl Who played with fire, _number two in the millennium series by Stieg Larsson, and just as he was starting to forget himself in the plot, he felt someone settle next to him an give a cough. He looked up at the council member who looked at him a little unsure.

"Is that any good? I have been wondering if I should start reading it or not."

And with that one sentence, they started talking and never really stopped. They discussed books constantly, and swapped around their own books as well as those belonging to the library. When Kurt was packing to leave, he no longer knew which books he actually owned and which were Thad's, but he simply packed what was in his room at the time. They would pass more books back and forth anyways, it didn't really matter all that much. As he hugged Thad goodbye, he knew he was going to miss the friendly Warble horribly.

**Flint, Tristan and Caleb**

The four of them bonded over something rather simple, though surprising. Kurt had a thing for action movies. This wasn't exactly common knowledge; the girls in ND weren't interested in watching action, and the boys for some reason thought Kurt wasn't interested, so they never invited him to the boy's nights. The Warblers had movie nights every second Friday, but as most of the Warblers boarded at school and lived far enough away to not go home every week, it was hard to find something everyone wanted to see. So they usually split in two, and the responsibility to choose movies fell to two people. They had to work together so that they didn't end up watching the same, and usually one group watched action and thriller movies (as movie night needed at least two movies, but preferably three) and the second group drama and classics. When Blaine was one of the guys to decide, there was often a musical and a Disney movie, and if David decided it was most often horror and crime.

The first Friday Kurt joined in, he had the choice between _Die Hard _and _Resident Evil _in the senior common room, or _Charlie and the chocolate factory _and _Cars_ in the junior common room. They all gathered in Warbler hall before splitting up, and Kurt hadn't really though about it much, he had been a Warbler all of three days, and he was still getting to know them all, so he followed the group to the seniors, as that was the movies he wanted to see. He didn't see the slightly disappointed look in Blaine's eyes when the shorter boy walked the other way nor the surprised look in David's eyes when he realized Kurt had joined them.

Two weeks later the choice was between _300 _and _Salt_ in senior's or _Singing in the rain_ and _Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban_ in juniors. Once again, it wasn't really a choice for Kurt, as he could see musicals whenever with his girlfriends and didn't really care all that much about the HP movies (though the same could not be said about the books). This time though, he was talking to Blaine as they were about to split up, and when they all walked out of the Warbler's room, Blaine continued to talk even though Kurt had stopped to head to the seniors. When Blaine had realized that Kurt was no longer there, he stopped and turned around in concern. Before he could say anything, Kurt said:

"I'm headed to the seniors, I'll see you tomorrow?" He gave the shorter boy a smile and was about to walk away when he noticed several people looking at him in surprise. "What? I like action movies, big deal."

Throughout the next weeks, Kurt recognized a pattern. Of the boarders there were three other people that always chose to watch the action movies, Flint, Caleb and Tristan. The four of them often talked about the movies and would often crash in each other's rooms and watch movies whenever there was some extra time to be had. When Kurt had told them he was leaving they had promised to come drag him to a cinema showing every now and then, and he promised to come hang out on movie nights from time to time. He was going to miss his movie friends.

**KURT WARBLER**

_Tbc_


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings**: Trigger alert, mentions of self harm and allusions to suicide.

**Summary: **When Kurt transfer back to McKinley, it's not for the reasons many thinks. As the Warblers sing to their goodbye, Kurt thinks back at his time with them, and the friends he have made and which he will miss horribly.

**Beta: **Thanks to **The Other **for beta, and all mistakes are my own

**Disclaimer: **Not mine, otherwise Kurt would be doing the horizontal with... well, anyone but Blaine.

**Ted**

At Dalton there was a rule; every student, if physically possible, had to be a part of at least one sports team. After looking through the teams, Kurt soon decided that he was going to join fencing, and he turned out to be a natural at it. One of his closest friends on the team was Ted. He was a brunette, built much in the same way as Kurt, though not as effeminate. He was a bit of a geek, and kind of reminded Kurt of Sam, in more ways than one.

The first time he had met Ted was at the first practice he joined, where the other boy had been told to help Kurt out and figure out how much training he would need. Ted was a master with blades of any kind, and even though the foils were far from blades, he was a master with that too. He was also a very good teacher, and by the end of the class, Kurt had at least a fairly basic understanding of the sport.

One of the things Kurt had to do when he transferred - a deal he made with both the Headmaster and with his dad - was to take self defense lessons. One of the gym teachers, certified to teach self defense, was going to start teaching him twice a week. It was his first class, Wednesday after dinner, and Kurt was on his way into the showers in the changing room. The teacher had shown him a lot of basics today - because half his body was still covered in bruises and they didn't want to make it worse. Most of the class had actually been used to talk, where Kurt told them what had happened at McKinley. His teacher had been outraged, and couldn't believe anyone could get away with that at a school, but they were doing all they could about it now.

Kurt had so far been careful showering in the public showers with anyone else, as he knew he looked rather beat up right now. Besides the bruises, there were also the scars, and the fact that he hadn't been eating well the last few months, and looked rather underweight. He was alone now, and no one was using the gym this late on a Wednesday, so he didn't bother to take anything more than a towel and his products into the shower.

When he came out of the shower 20 minutes later, he was greeted with the familiar sight of Ted, pulling a sweatshirt over his head.

"Hey, Kurt, what are you doing here so late?" Ted stopped short when the shirt had cleared his eyes, seeing the wide blown eyes before his eyes zeroed in on the bruised upper body and the ribs he could count underneath. The towel covered Kurt's thighs (something Kurt would remember to be thankful for later, as it covered the scars), but Kurt's arms showed well enough just how thin he actually was.

"Oh my God, Kurt, man, what happened to you?" Ted had stepped in front of him, his hands not touching Kurt but kind of skating along just outside his body, as if trying to figure out where he could touch without hurting Kurt.

Kurt finally managed to gather his wits long enough to answer. "Oh, it's nothing."

"This is not nothing! Is this... is this from our old school?" Ted looked at him, a little unsure. "I knew you had been bullied, but this is insane, this is abuse!"

Kurt sighed as he sat down on the bench, pulling on his boxers whilst holding the towel in place. "Look, yes, it's from my old school. They're locker checks, they shove you into the lockers as hard as they can. I just tend to bruise easily, so it looks a lot worse than it is." He was looking down as he pulled on his 'relaxed-but-still-good-looking' sweatpants and put the towel in his bag.

Ted laid a warm hand on his shoulder. "Fine, maybe you are away from that now, but Kurt... you're still way too thin. Are you starving yourself?"

The warmth of the hand seeped into Kurt's skin, and before he could stop himself, tears were slowly making their way down his chin. He was pulled into a firm hug, arms heedful of the bruises, and he slowly leaned into the hug, his hands on Ted's upper back and his head on his shoulder.

A few minutes went by where Kurt was silently crying, before he pulled away from the hug and wiped away the tears. "No, I don't starve myself, but I have problems eating sometimes when I'm stressed. I don't do it on purpose, but I just lose my appetite, and forget to eat sometimes."

There wasn't really all that much Ted could say, but he became highly protective of Kurt. He would be sure to see the countertenor at least a few times each day, and always sat with him at lunch, even when that meant sitting with the other Warblers. The first time he sat down with them he got a lot of looks, but he stared them down, whilst keeping an eye on Kurt to make sure he ate enough.

As time went by, the two got to know each other better and better, and when Kurt told him he was leaving Dalton, Ted had demanded to get to meet all his friends at McKinley. When asked why, the answer was "I can't watch you every day anymore, and can't make sure you eat what you should, so I need to find someone at that school that will do it for me."

Kurt gave him a teary smile and a hug for that, and he knew he was going to see a lot of this boy, even though he had to leave. When Ted met the New Directions, to Kurt's surprise, he asked Mike if he could keep an extra eye on him. Kurt had no idea as to why, but as long as Mike agreed and Ted was happy, he didn't really care.

**Mikey (and Cameron)**

Kurt had been walking down the hallway when he heard someone sobbing in one of the rooms. It was one of the freshman dorms, and Kurt had only come that way because he had been doing one of the professors a favor.

He knocked the door, but when all he could hear was continued sobbing, he carefully opened it up. It was a double room, like most the other rooms at Dalton, but at the time held only one occupant - a young boy. He was sitting bunched up on one of the beds, sobbing his heart out, and hadn't seemed to notice anyone coming in.

Kurt stood where he was for a few seconds, a little unsure of how to approach the other boy. He carefully looked him over, seeing if there was any visible injury, but when he looked at the arms he noticed that the boys hands where holding a fist around something. Kurt couldn't see what it was, but he did see the pill bottle clenched in the other hand, and could correctly guess what it was.

"Hey..." The young boy looked up at the sound of Kurt's voice, with terrified eyes.

"W-who... W-what?" He was still crying, but the sobbing seemed to have calmed down. Kurt walked towards the bed, slowly, trying to not scare the other boy.

"Hi, I'm Kurt. What's your name?"

The boy sniffed a little, before answering. "Mikey."

By now Kurt was standing by the bed, right in front of the younger boy.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Kurt tried to be calm and careful, but he was terrified that Mikey would just throw the pills back.

The boy shook his head, clutching both the pills and the container harder.

"Okay, but I would really like to get to know you, so why don't I tell you a little about myself, and then you can tell me a little about you. Okay?" Mikey slowly nodded his head. "Is it okay if I sit on the bed?"

Mikey scootched back a little, clearing room for Kurt, and he sat down, cross legged, face to face with the younger boy. He was still holding onto the pills and container, though not as hard, and his body had relaxed a little bit.

"Well, as I said, I'm Kurt, and I'm from Lima. I am a junior, and I started here a couple of months ago, after a bad bullying thing at my old school, McKinley. I love to sing, and to perform, and I dream about one day becoming a star on Broadway." Kurt was smiling, hoping to relax the other boy with his small talk.

"I also love clothes, and if I can't be on Broadway, I want to be a designer. The uniforms here kind of suck, but I've gotten used to them by now." That coaxed a little smile out of Mikey, so Kurt continued.

"I have a great dad, and now I have a stepmother and stepbrother as well, which is good, especially for my dad, so he won't be alone so much. My stepbrother is really tall and really clumsy, and somewhat brain dead sometimes, but he has a heart of gold. I miss them a lot, but I go home once a month, and I'm happy here so it's worth it."

Suddenly Mikey interrupted him. "Would you go back if you could?" His voice was hesitant and soft.

"No. I miss my family and my old friends, but this school has given me too much to give up. Not only the great classes and teachers, and the fact that Dalton looks much better at my resume than McKinley does, but also all the people here. I have loads of friends I don't want to leave, and here I can be myself without fear."

There was silence for a few seconds, and Kurt was about to draw a new breath and start talking again when Mikey said something, almost in a whisper.

"I wish I could do that."

"Do what?"

Mikey looked up at Kurt from his lap, looking down again before he started talking. "Be myself without fear."

Kurt looked at him in sympathy. "Why can't you, though?"

Another sniff, and then "Because of my family." He started to cry again, once the words where out, and was soon sobbing in earnest. Kurt moved closer to him and lay an arm around his shoulder, and seconds later pills and container were dropped, and Kurt had a crying freshman in his lap. The countertenor circled the smaller boy into a hug, letting him cry and snot over his Dalton blazer and stroked his hair, trying to calm the boy down.

After ten minutes, Mikey had finally calmed down enough to start talking into Kurt's shoulder. "My family, they are all into music. My dad owns a record company and my mom sings opera and my brother is in the Warblers and plays like seven instruments. I grew up in the same classes of course, but I don't enjoy it at all, I can't sing particularly well and I don't really want to. I like to make things with my hands, woodworks and clay and such. I also like to build things, and I dream of one day building my own house. My family all wanted me to audition for the Warblers, but I didn't want to, so I pretended that I had a cold that day. Cameron, my brother, keeps saying that he can get me an audition with the Warblers anytime, and I keep putting it off, because I don't want to. Then my dad called and yelled at me for not showing up to piano lessons the last few times, and I just don't know what to do anymore. I have tried to tell my parents, but I chicken out every time, and I don't want to disappoint them, but I just can't be like they are."

Kurt held the other boy in a close hug as he started answering. "First off all, just because you are a family doesn't mean you have to do the same things. My dad and I, we are almost night and day. He can't sing a note and wouldn't know a McQueen from a Walmart scarf. He loves football, but I'm not sure I even understand the rules. Second, being able to build something with your hands is a great gift, and not something that everyone can do. Don't be ashamed of that. Third, I know Cameron, I'm in the Warblers, and I think he would want you to talk to him, and tell him what's going on with his little brother. Same for your parents, if you don't want to tell them face to face, write a letter or an email and send them. You are great just the way you are, and to misquote my dad 'a parents' job is to love their children.' They love you, but maybe they just don't know you."

Kurt straightened up a bit. "Now, listen up, this is what we are going to do. My dad owns a tire shop, and I love to play around with car engines. We are going to take a look at my car after school one day this week, and see if you like to learn about and build engines as well. If not, then we will find something else and do it together."

He helped Mikey clean himself up and pick up all the small pills and flush them. Kurt stayed in the room the rest of the evening, leaving when there was five minutes left until curfew with a new contact on his phone and a new friend.

K*D*K*D*K*D*K*D

A few days later, Kurt was walking into the Warblers common room ten minutes before rehearsal when he was assaulted by a hug. A rather wet hug, actually. Cameron was crying and hugging him, and mumbling thanks that Kurt barely understood, but he wrapped his arms around the other boy. When they talked a little later, it turned out that Mikey had told Cameron everything, even about the pills, and that they had gone home together and told their parents. As far as Cameron and his parents were concerned, Kurt had saved Mikey's life, and they wanted him over for dinner to thank him properly. Kurt had been overwhelmed, but accepted gracefully, and by the time he left the house he was considered a fifth member of their family.

Kurt would miss seeing Mikey and Cameron at school, but he had a standing dinner invitation to the house, and knew he would see them there whenever he could.


End file.
